Correlation between Pineal Activation and Religious Meditation Observed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The human brain possesses plenty of functions but little is known about its scientific relationship with mind and spirit. Conferences^1,2^ focused on the connection between science and religion were held very recently in which neuroscientists, Buddhist scholars and Dalai Lama discussed attention, mental imagery, emotion, mind, brain functions and meditation, suggesting religious meditation offers an effective means to investigate the mystery of mind and spirit. In the past decade, scientists struggled to obtain brain mappings for various meditation styles using different brain imaging techniques and stimulating results have been observed^3-17^. In this letter we report that, together with other brain regions, pineal body exhibit significant activation during meditation process, supporting the long lasting speculation that pineal plays an important role in the intrinsic awareness which might concern spirit or soul. Pineal is known as an endocrine organ which produces substrates including melatonin and has been ascribed numerous even mysterious functions but its activation during meditation has never been observed by brain imaging technique. In seventeenth century, based on anatomic observation, Descartes ventured to suggest that pineal serves as the principal seat of the soul^18-20^. Inspired by its geometric center in the brain, physiologists, psychologists, philosophers and religionists have been speculating for centuries about pineal's function relevant to spirit and soul. In this study, we chose Chinese Original Quiet Sitting, one style of meditation, to explore this long lasting speculation by functional magnetic resonance imaging technique. Our results demonstrate a correlation between pineal activation and religious meditation which might have profound implications in physiological understanding of the intrinsic awareness

Fibroblast Growth Factor-10 Promotes Cardiomyocyte Differentiation from Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

BACKGROUND: The fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family is essential to normal heart development. Yet, its contribution to cardiomyocyte differentiation from stem cells has not been systemically studied. In this study, we examined the mechanisms and characters of cardiomyocyte differentiation from FGF family protein treated embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used mouse ES cells stably transfected with a cardiac-specific α-myosin heavy chain (αMHC) promoter-driven enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and mouse iPS cells to investigate cardiomyocyte differentiation. During cardiomyocyte differentiation from mouse ES cells, FGF-3, -8, -10, -11, -13 and -15 showed an expression pattern similar to the mesodermal marker Brachyury and the cardiovascular progenitor marker Flk-1. Among them, FGF-10 induced cardiomyocyte differentiation in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. FGF-10 neutralizing antibody, small molecule FGF receptor antagonist PD173074 and FGF-10 and FGF receptor-2 short hairpin RNAs inhibited cardiomyocyte differentiation. FGF-10 also increased mouse iPS cell differentiation into cardiomyocyte lineage, and this effect was abolished by FGF-10 neutralizing antibody or PD173074. Following Gene Ontology analysis, microarray data indicated that genes involved in cardiac development were upregulated after FGF-10 treatment. In vivo, intramyocardial co-administration of FGF-10 and ES cells demonstrated that FGF-10 also promoted cardiomyocyte differentiation. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: FGF-10 induced cardiomyocyte differentiation from ES cells and iPS cells, which may have potential for translation into clinical applications

San-Huang-Xie-Xin-Tang Prevents Rat Hearts from Ischemia/Reperfusion-Induced Apoptosis through eNOS and MAPK Pathways

San-Huang-Xie-Xin-Tang (SHXT) is a traditional Chinese medication consisting of three herbs, namely Coptidis rhizome, Scutellariae radix and Rhei rhizome. This study aimed to examine the cardioprotective effects of SHXT in a rat model of acute myocardial apoptosis induced by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Vehicle (intravenous saline) or SHXT (intravenous or oral) was administered prior to I/R (occlusion of left coronary artery for 45 min followed by reperfusion for 2 h). In the vehicle group, myocardial I/R caused myocardial infarction with increased plasma cardiac enzymes, severe arrhythmia and mortality. Myocardial apoptosis was induced by I/R as evidenced by DNA ladder and Bcl-2/Bax ratio. In the SHXT group, we found that SHXT significantly reduced plasma levels of cardiac enzymes, arrhythmia scores (from 5 ± 1 to 2 ± 1, P < .01) and mortality rate (from 53 to 0%, P < .01). In addition, pretreatment with intravenous SHXT reduced the infarct size dose-dependently when compared with the vehicle group (10 mg kg−1: 14.0 ± 0.2 versus 44.5 ± 5.0%, and 30 mg kg−1: 6.2 ± 1.2% versus 44.5 ± 5.0%, both P < .01). Similarly, oral administration of SHXT reduced the infarct size dose-dependently. Furthermore, SHXT markedly decreased the apoptosis induced by I/R with increased Bcl-2/Bax ratio. Finally, we found that SHXT counteracted the I/R-induced downstream signaling, resulting in increased myocardial eNOS expression and plasma nitrite, and decreased activation of ERK1/2, p38 and JNK. These data suggest that SHXT has cardioprotective effects against I/R-induced apoptosis, and that these effects are mediated, at least in part, by eNOS and MAPK pathways

Improving thermal stability and efficacy of BCNU in treating glioma cells using PAA-functionalized graphene oxide

Yu-Jen Lu1,2,#, Hung-Wei Yang1,#, Sheng-Che Hung3, Chiung-Yin Huang2, Shin-Ming Li4, Chen-Chi M Ma4, Pin-Yuan Chen2, Hong-Chieh Tsai2, Kuo-Chen Wei2, Jyh-Ping Chen1 1Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Chang Gung University, Kwei-San, Taoyuan, Taiwan; 2Department of Neurosurgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kwei-San, Taoyuan, Taiwan; 3Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 4Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan#These authors contributed equally to this workBackground: 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU), a commercial chemotherapeutic drug for treating malignant brain tumors, has poor thermal stability and a short half-life. Immobilization of BCNU on a nanocarrier might increase the thermal stability of BCNU and extend its half-life.Methods: Nanosized graphene oxide (GO) could be modified by polyacrylic acid (PAA) to improve the aqueous solubility and increase the cell penetration efficacy of the nanocarrier. PAA&amp;ndash;GO intended as a drug carrier for BCNU was prepared and characterized in this study. The size and thickness of PAA&amp;ndash;GO was investigated by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, and the presence of PAA functional groups was confirmed by electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. BCNU was conjugated to PAA&amp;ndash;GO by covalent binding for specific killing of cancer cells, which could also enhance the thermal stability of the drug.Results: Single layer PAA&amp;ndash;GO (about 1.9 nm) with a lateral width as small as 36 nm was successfully prepared. The optimum drug immobilization condition was by reacting 0.5 mg PAA&amp;ndash;GO with 0.4 mg BCNU, and the drug-loading capacity and residual drug activity were 198 &amp;micro;g BCNU/mg PAA&amp;ndash;GO and 70%, respectively. This nanocarrier significantly prolonged the half-life of bound BCNU from 19 to 43 hours compared with free drug and showed efficient intracellular uptake by GL261 cancer cells. The in vitro anticancer efficacy of PAA&amp;ndash;GO&amp;ndash;BCNU was demonstrated by a 30% increase in DNA interstrand cross-linking and a 77% decrease in the IC50 value toward GL261 compared with the same dosage of free drug.Conclusion: Nanosized PAA&amp;ndash;GO serves as an efficient BCNU nanocarrier by covalent binding. This nanocarrier will be a promising new vehicle for an advanced drug delivery system in cancer therapy.Keywords: graphene oxide, BCNU, glioma cells, drug delivery, thermal stabilit

The role of echocardiographic study in patients with chronic kidney disease

Despite the recent enormous advances in medicine, high mortality and morbidity rates among the chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients remain an important but unresolved issue. Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with CKD. Abnormal left ventricular geometry and functions are common in this patient group and have been proven to be correlated with a high cardiovascular mortality/morbidity and all-cause mortality. For this reason, echocardiographic study plays an important role in evaluating cardiac structure and functions as well as in stratifying prognostic risk. We here summarize the reported findings on the usefulness of echocardiographic methodologies and identify their roles in diagnostic and prognostic clinical approaches

Recombinant Rabbit Leukemia Inhibitory Factor and Rabbit Embryonic Fibroblasts Support the Derivation and Maintenance of Rabbit Embryonic Stem Cells

Abstract The rabbit is a classical experimental animal species. A major limitation in using rabbits for biomedical research is the lack of germ-line-competent rabbit embryonic stem cells (rbESCs). We hypothesized that the use of homologous feeder cells and recombinant rabbit leukemia inhibitory factor (rbLIF) might improve the chance in deriving germ-line-competent rbES cells. In the present study, we established rabbit embryonic fibroblast (REF) feeder layers and synthesized recombinant rbLIF. We derived a total of seven putative rbESC lines, of which two lines (M5 and M23) were from culture Condition I using mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) as feeders supplemented with human LIF (hLIF) (MEF+hLIF). Another five lines (R4, R9, R15, R21, and R31) were derived from Condition II using REFs as feeder cells supplemented with rbLIF (REF+rbLIF). Similar derivation efficiency was observed between these two conditions (8.7% vs. 10.2%). In a separate experiment with 2?3 factorial design, we examined the effects of feeder cells (MEF vs. REF) and LIFs (mLIF, hLIF vs. rbLIF) on rbESC culture. Both Conditions I and II supported satisfactory rbESC culture, with similar or better population doubling time and colony-forming efficiency than other combinations of feeder cells with LIFs. Rabbit ESCs derived and maintained on both conditions displayed typical ESC characteristics, including ESC pluripotency marker expression (AP, Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, and SSEA4) and gene expression (Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, c-Myc, Klf4, and Dppa5), and the capacity to differentiate into three primary germ layers in vitro. The present work is the first attempt to establish rbESC lines using homologous feeder cells and recombinant rbLIF, by which the rbESCs were derived and maintained normally. These cell lines are unique resources and may facilitate the derivation of germ-line-competent rbESCs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98439/1/cell%2E2012%2E0001.pd

Sarcocrassocolides M–O, Bioactive Cembranoids from the Dongsha Atoll Soft Coral Sarcophyton crassocaule

Three new cembranoids, sarcocrassocolides M–O (1–3), have been isolated from the soft coral Sarcophyton crassocaule. The structures of the metabolites were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis. Compounds 1–3 were shown to exhibit moderate cytotoxicity toward a limited panel of cancer cell lines and display significant in vitro anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells by inhibiting the expression of the iNOS protein